Derrick Pouliot Invited to Team Canada’s National Junior Team Summer Development Camp

Derrick Pouliot Invited to Team Canada\u2019s National Junior Team Summer Development Camp

Hockey Canada announced this morning that Penguins prospect defenseman Derrick Pouliot was invited to Team Canada’s National Junior Team summer development camp, which will be held August 4-10 in Brossard, Quebec and Lake Placid, New York.

Pouliot will be auditioning for a spot on Canada’s entry at the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championship, which will be held Dec. 26, 2013-Jan. 5, 2014, in Malmo, Sweden.

Pouliot, 19, nearly made Canada’s 2013 world junior roster, before being one of the team’s final omissions as one of the youngest players invited to its selection camp last December. He has previously represented Team Canada at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, where he earned a gold medal, and the 2010 Under-17 Challenge when he was named to the tournament all-star team.

The 5-foot-11, 195-pound Pouliot helped his junior team, the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL), win its league title in 2012-13 and earn a berth in the Memorial Cup Tournament, where they were runner-up to the champion Halifax Mooseheads.

Pouliot finished the regular season with 45 points (9G-36A) and a career-best plus-35 mark in 44 contests. He also represented Team WHL in the Subway Super Series against Russia.

During the postseason the Weyburn, Saskatchewan native led all Portland defenders with 20 points (4G-16A) while posting a plus-9 rating in 21 games. Pouliot appeared in five Memorial Cup contests, totaling seven points (2G-5A).

At the conclusion of his junior team’s season, Pouliot made his professional debut, suiting up for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League (AHL) in Game 5 of the team’s Eastern Conference finals series against the Syracuse Crunch.

Pouliot, who was selected by Pittsburgh in the first round (8th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft at CONSOL Energy Center with the choice acquired from Carolina in the Jordan Staal trade, has totaled 135 points (25G-110A) in 189 career WHL regular-season games. He has added 41 points (8G-33A) in 64 postseason games.

Team Canada will spend August 4-5 practicing in Brossard before traveling to Lake Placid to play in exhibition games against Finland (Aug. 7 at 1 p.m.), Sweden (Aug. 8 at 4:15 p.m.) and the United States (Aug. 10 at 1 p.m.).